


These Costumes Won't Sew Themselves

by thewightknight



Category: Marvel, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Superhero Costumes, a superhero walks into a sewing store, probably a one shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 17:34:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13885725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/pseuds/thewightknight
Summary: Sandra, Madge and Helen don't quite know what to make of the young man that just walked into their sewing shop.





	These Costumes Won't Sew Themselves

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, where do these superheroes get all their costumes anyways? Edna Mode can't handle all of them.

The three ladies eyed the twenty-something that had just walked into the shop. He came to a halt a few steps inside the door, eyes already glazed over as he stared at all the sewing machines on display.

“That young man is so lost,” Helen whispered to the other two.

“Aren’t they all at that age?” Madge snickered.

“Enough with the philosophizing, Madge,” Sandra said, half scolding as she tried to hold in her own laughter.

“Who wants him, then?” Helen asked.

“Thirty years ago I’d have wrestled you for him,” Madge said, miming biting her knuckle, and Helen inhaled wrong, choking. Madge started patting her on the back, making soothing noises, which left Sandra to greet their prospective customer.

“Good morning! Welcome to Three Biddies' Sewing! How can we help you?” she asked, giving him her best grandmotherly smile.

“Um, hi there. I was, well, I’m thinking of taking up sewing. To sew, you know. My own clothes.” He shuffled his feet as he talked, hands buried deep in the pockets of his rather rumpled jacket.

“Well, that’s an admirable ambition. Not too many young people these days taking an interest in such a thing. Let’s set you down right here and see if any of these would suit you.” With her initial assessment of the general state of his clothes, combined with his relative youth, she led him over to one of the side tables where some of the general purpose, lower end machines sat.

“Are you thinking of shirts, then? Button downs, perhaps?” That’s what peeked out from underneath his sad jacket. It needed ironing too. “Or t-shirts?" A couple of these have some settings that will work for knits.”

“Well, I’m thinking more of, you know, active wear. Like spandex?” His voice rose on the last syllable, almost cracking, and he blushed, just a little bit. “They’re really expensive in the shops,” he said, sounding a bit on the defensive side.

“Oh.” Sandra made sure to keep her expression neutral, but speculations ran rampant through the hamster wheels inside her skull. “Well, then. Let’s give this one a run through its paces and you tell me what you think.”

He showed some familiarity with basic concepts, explaining that he used to watch his aunt sew when he was younger. Managing to thread the machine with only a little prompting, he worked his way through the various settings under Sandra’s direction. She noticed he paid special attention to the various stretch options.

“You know, we have weekly classes available. Let me grab the schedule while you see if you can manage a buttonhole.” She left him there, staring intently at the manual as he switched the dial back and forth.

She pulled one of their catalogs from the rack next to the register, making shushing noises at Helen and Madge when they started pelting her with questions. The young lad, who’d said his name was Peter, had looked up at them, a bit of white showing at the corners of his eyes.

“Don’t scare the poor boy off, ladies!” 

Sitting down again, she opened the catalog to the current month. 

“Here we are. Now year-round on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons we’ve got our sewing basics classes.” She pointed to the blocks on the calendar, highlighted in pale green. “Even if you’ve got some experience with the basics, it’s good to have a refresher. And you can bring projects in and work on them during these times, even get help for the tricky bits if you want. We have specialty classes every Saturday, two new ones every month on alternating weekends. This month it’s quilting on the odd Saturdays, which probably won’t interest you. And on even. Hmm. Appliqué. Maybe not your thing either?”

“What’s appliqué?”

“Oh, that’s when you attach smaller pieces of fabric to a larger piece to create a pattern.”

“Really? That sounds kinda cool.” He tried to sound indifferent, but Sandra caught the excitement in his voice. She thought about asking if he would be working with rhinestones or sequins but decided that might bring the white back to his eyes again.

“Well, classes are ten dollars each, or if you join our sewing club, it’s ten dollars a month and you can come to as many classes as you like. Plus, for joining you get a twenty percent discount on your first purchase here.”

Young Peter left with a machine in one hand, their course catalog in the other, and a membership card in his wallet. He’d paid in crumpled up bills, mostly smaller denominations, that he’d dug out of his jeans pockets, confirming Sandra’s suspicions.

As soon as the door shut behind him, she started giggling.

“Girls, I think our newest sewing club member is a burgeoning stripper.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you want to say hi, [check out my profile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/profile) for where I’m currently hanging out on this here internet thing.


End file.
